BITRECS: Biomedicine international training research programme for excellent clinician- scientists CALL 2: RESEARCH LINES Version 2 (29-06-2018) RL1 . Peptide-Major Histocompatibility Complex-based nanomedicines for the treatment of autoimmune disease (Dr. Pau Serra) ................................................................................................................................ 3 RL2 . Mechanisms of progression in monoclonal gammopathies (Dr. Carlos Fernández de Larrea) ............ 4 RL3 . Digital solutions for effective intervention to prevent alcohol and tobacco use in primary health care (Dr. Antoni Gual) ........................................................................................................................................... 5 RL4 . Applied research in pulmonary diseases of critically-ill patients (Dr. Antoni Torres) ............................ 6 RL5 . Cell cancer immunotherapy: chimeric antigen receptor (Dr. Manel Juan) ............................................ 8 RL6 . Antibody-mediated diseases of the central nervous system (Dr. Josep Dalmau) ................................. 9 RL7 . Molecular Pathology of Lymphoid Neoplasms (Dr. Elías Campo) ...................................................... 10 RL8 . Understanding myocardial substrate for arrhythmia development (Dr. Marta Sitges) ........................ 11 RL9 . Translational Research on Pulmonary Vascular Diseases (Dr. Isabel Blanco) .................................. 12 RL10 . Portal hypertension and vascular liver diseases (Dr. Juan Carlos García-Pagán) ........................... 14 RL11 . Brain development in youth with early psychosis: insights from resting state magnetic resonance imaging and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (Dr. Gisela Sugranyes) ......................................... 15 RL12 . Clinical and Translational Research on Infective Endocarditis (Dr. Josep Maria Miro) .................... 16 RL13 . Genetics and immunology in melanoma (Dr. Susana Puig) ............................................................. 17 RL14 . AIDS research (Dr. Felipe García) ................................................................................................... 18 RL15 . Immune profiling of human liver tumors and surrounding stroma and its evolution during systemic therapy. (Dr. Jordi Bruix) ............................................................................................................................. 19 RL16 . Translational Genomics and Targeted Therapeutics in Solid Tumors (Dr. Aleix Prat) ..................... 20 RL17 . Clinical, neuropsychological, neuroimaging and genetic characteristics of children and adolescent offspring of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (Dr. Josefina Castro) ..................... 21 RL18 . Clinical and molecular research in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders (Dr. Maria Josep Martí) ................................................................................................................................................ 22 RL19 . Brain networks modifications in neuroimmunological diseases (Dr. Sara Llufriu) ............................ 23 RL20 . Obesity and metabolic dysfunction (Dr. Josep Vidal) ....................................................................... 24 RL21 . Early stages in bipolar disorders (Dr. Eduard Vieta) ........................................................................ 25 RL22 . Visual Pathway Lab (Dr. Elena H Martínez-Lapiscina) ..................................................................... 26 RL23 . Personalized Immunotherapy Combinations in Liver Cancer (Dr. Josep Maria Llovet) .................... 27 RL24 . Fecal microbiota trasplantation to fight against antimicrobial resistance (Dr. Alex Soriano)............. 28 RL25 . Liver Vascular Biology (Dr. Jordi Gracia) ......................................................................................... 29 RL26 . Systems biology in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): lung development vs. lung ageing (Dr. Àlvar Agustí) ............................................................................................................................. 30 RL27 . Identifying predictors of response to therapy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients (Dr. Azucena Salas) .......................................................................................................................................................... 31 RL28 . Targeting molecular heterogeneity in lymphoma (Dr. Dolors Colomer) ............................................ 32 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754550 1 RL29 . Clinical, molecular and endoscopic characterization of high-risk conditions for colorectal cancer (Dr. Francesc Balaguer) ..................................................................................................................................... 33 RL30 . Identification of new genes involved in germline predisposition to gastric cancer (Dr. Sergi Castellví- Bel) ............................................................................................................................................................. 34 RL31 . Novel approaches for fetal medicine and surgery (Dr. Eduard Gratacós) ........................................ 35 RL32 . Vasculitis: immunopathogenic mechanisms of vascular inflammation and remodelling (Dr. Maria Cinta Cid) .................................................................................................................................................... 36 RL33 . Translational research in new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies at the nanoscale for liver diseases (Dr. Wladimiro Jiménez) .............................................................................................................. 38 RL34 . Molecular pathology of uveitis and retinal inflammation (Dr. Alfredo Adán Civera) .......................... 39 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754550 2 RL1. Peptide-Major Histocompatibility Complex-based nanomedicines for the treatment of autoimmune disease (Dr. Pau Serra) Key words: Nanomedicine; autoimmunity; immunoregulation; liver autoimmunity Description of the research line: The complexity of autoimmune diseases is a barrier to the design of strategies that can blunt autoimmunity without impairing general immunity. We have shown that nanoparticles (NPs) coated with disease-relevant peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) molecules can resolve inflammation in various organ-specific autoimmune disease models (Clemente et al., Nature 530:434, 2016). pMHC class II --‐NP therapy functions by promoting the formation and expansion, in an epitope-specific manner, of cognate T-regulatory-type-1 (TR1) CD4+T-cells that are virtually identical to TR1 cells cloned from patients. These in vivo-expanded TR1 cells resolve autoimmune inflammation by selectively suppressing the autoantigen-loaded professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) proximal to the affected organ. Furthermore, our data indicate that any single disease--‐relevant pMHC specificity will be capable, when coated onto NPs, to blunt the underlying autoimmune response, regardless of its role in the disease process. In certain organ--‐specific autoimmune diseases, such as Primary Biliary Cholangitis (PBC), Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) or Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) (liver autoimmune diseases with high unmet needs), the autoimmune response largely focuses on ubiquitous, non-organ-specific antigens. Although these antigens are expressed systemically, the resulting autoimmunity is liver-specific. The goal of this translational proposal, is to validate the disease specificity of pMHC--‐based nanomedicine candidates for PBC, PSC, AIH and inflammatory bowel disease (frequently associated with PSC) in mouse models of these diseases as well as in mice humanized with peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients. Our hypotheses are: (1) that the nanomedicines will trigger TR1 responses in the corresponding animal models and in humanized NSG mice; and (2) that these compounds will be liver and/or disease-specific. Principle investigator: Pau Serra, [email protected] Research group: Autoimmunity Research Group. The scientific objective of the group is to develop pMHC-based nanomedicines for the treatment of chronic autoimmune inflammation across indications, and to dissect the immunoregulatory cell networks that arise in response to treatment, both in animal models of disease and in humanized mice. The laboratory has expertise in pMHC expression and purification and employs a broad spectrum of molecular, cellular and pathological techniques as well as animal models of autoimmune inflammation to understand disease pathogenesis and mechanisms of immunoregulation. The laboratory has a very significant translational component that involves studies of peripheral blood mononuclear samples of patients with various autoimmune diseases both ex vivo as well as in in vivo, in humanized mice. Additional information about the research group: Importance of the clinician-scientists within the group: The IDIBAPS principal investigator (P. Serra) pursued a Biology Intern Residence (BIR) in a clinical immunology lab at Hospital Son Dureta in Mallorca, before pursuing a PhD and therefore has a deep understanding